"Stay WIth Me Baby"-appreciation L. Ellison-R

mannybolonemannybolone Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
edited December 2008 in Strut Central
I just got back from watching this early cut of "The Boat that Rocked" which is about the offshore British pirate stations of the mid-1960s. b, 21b, 21The movie was ho-hum but it was an early cut. b, 21b, 21The upside is that I heard, for the first time, this song which blew my f*cking mind:b, 21b, 21object width="425" height="344"1param name="movie" value=""1/param1param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"1/param1param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"1/param1embed src="" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"1/embed1/object1

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  • The [i]Stay With Me/i1 album (on Warner Bros.-Seven Arts) is a killer, probably the best of the three LP's she released.

  • luckluck 4,077 Posts
    Jerry Ragovoy (see also, Howard Tate, Garnet Mimms, etc.) with the production on that. It's a testament to how strong her voice is that she didn't get lost in the orchestra section.b, 21b, 21This song was actually on her first LP, Heart and Soul, before surfacing as the title track to her next album (when the Nancy Wilson role didn't suit her). Her second LP, Stay With Me, is well worth picking up, but make sure to get a clean copy, as I recall there being a lot of quiet spots.

  • a href="http://helium.lunarpages.com/~funky4/sounds/0422lorraine.mp3" target="_blank"1This is the shit, right here..../a1 b, 21b, 21Written by Lou Courtneyb, 21b, 21b, 21 img src="http://helium.lunarpages.com/~funky4/pictures/ellison45.jpg"1

  • mannybolonemannybolone Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
    Thanks for the 411 everyone. I appreciate it.

  • One of my favorite songs, heard it on a comp and was just blown away. I like the fact that the orchestra was actually Frank Sinatra's, who happened to be at the studio and the producer said "hey, would you like to cut a track?" so an arrangement was done on the spot and we have this song. It shocked me when Mary J. Blige did it on an awards show a year or two ago, I didn't think the song had any kind of buzz but I would love to hear the song come to a proper conclusion, just to hear how it went. Not sure if any of the Loma multi-tracks exist.b, 21b, 21b, 21In case some of you don't know the connection, Loma was a soul label distributed by Reprise, the label founded by Sinatra. He was doing an album at the same time Ellison was about to record "Stay With Me" when the orchestra was waiting for the chairman of the board to arrive. I'm sure if I find the actual liner note, I can tell you what Sinatra sessions it was meant for.

  • /font1
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    h, 21
    b, 21One of my favorite songs, heard it on a comp and was just blown away. I like the fact that the orchestra was actually Frank Sinatra's, who happened to be at the studio and the producer said "hey, would you like to cut a track?" so an arrangement was done on the spot and we have this song.
    b, 21
    b, 21
    h, 21
    font class="post"1b, 21b, 21The version of the story I heard was that the band was waiting for Sinatra to show up and somehow he never did, so that's how we got "Stay With Me."b, 21b, 21I wonder if Sinatra would have stood for those out-of-tune trumpets that rare up just before the fadeout?b, 21b, 21b, 21/font1
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    h, 21
    b, 21It shocked me when Mary J. Blige did it on an awards show a year or two ago, I didn't think the song had any kind of buzz
    b, 21
    b, 21
    h, 21
    font class="post"1b, 21b, 21It shocked me, too. As big a hit as this was on R&B radio, you'd think all the Local Black Exp. "dusties" shows would be all over this one, but it didn't go like that. b, 21b, 21One thing I noticed about Mary J.'s version on the Grammies is that it sounded more empowered. She altered the lyrics in the bridge so she wasn't begging as hard.

  • Every version of this song I've heard is great. Such a heartbreaker.b, 21b, 21object width="425" height="344"1param name="movie" value=""1/param1param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"1/param1param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"1/param1embed src="" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"1/embed1/object1b, 21b, 21object width="425" height="344"1param name="movie" value=""1/param1param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"1/param1param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"1/param1embed src="" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"1/embed1/object1

  • DocMcCoyDocMcCoy "Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,917 Posts
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    h, 21
    b, 21I just got back from watching this early cut of "The Boat that Rocked" which is about the offshore British pirate stations of the mid-1960s.
    b, 21
    b, 21The movie was ho-hum but it was an early cut.
    b, 21
    b, 21The upside is that I heard, for the first time, this song which blew my f*cking mind:
    b, 21
    b, 21
    object width="425" height="344"1
    param name="movie" value=""1
    /param1
    param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"1
    /param1
    param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"1
    /param1
    embed src="" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"1
    /embed1
    /object1
    b, 21
    b, 21
    h, 21
    font class="post"1b, 21b, 21The first time??? Man, coming from a scholarly music dude like you, that's a real surprise.b, 21b, 21Yeah, that record was kinda big in the UK. Great, great song. Even as a kid, that vocal sounded pretty intense to me. There's a bunch of covers of it by UK artists as well. Terry Reid's version is great. David Essex's is F*ck-awful.

  • mannybolonemannybolone Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
    /font1
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    h, 21
    b, 21
    b, 21
    b, 21The
    first time??? Man, coming from a scholarly music dude like you, that's a real surprise.b, 21 b, 21b, 21h, 21
    font class="post"1b, 21b, 21*shrug* I'm always flattered by the assumptions of omniscience but there's a gazillion artists I haven't heard before that I probably should have. The thing about being "scholarly" though is that you tend to study the hell out of something very small rather than having this crazy breadth of knowledge. I've probably come across Ellison's stuff before but this was the first time I really *heard* her music, if that makes any sense.
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